A Theory of Political Entrepreneurship

Yet another paper presented at the most recent Austrian Student Scholars Conference has just been published. The article, "A Theory of Political Entrepreneurship" co-authored by Matthew McCaffrey and Joseph Salerno was presented by McCaffrey this past February. McCaffrey and Salerno's paper was published in the September 2011 issue of Modern Economy. The abstract reads as follows:

This paper adapts the entrepreneurial theory developed by Richard Cantillon, Frank Knight, and Ludwig von Mises to the theory of “political entrepreneurship.” Political entrepreneurship is an outgrowth of the theory of the market entrepreneur, and derives from extending entrepreneurial theory from the market into the political sphere of action. By applying the theory of the entrepreneur to political behavior, we provide a basis for identifying political entrepreneurs, and for separating them analytically from other government agents. The essence of political entrepreneurship is the redirection of production from the path it would have taken in an unregulated market. Nevertheless, this production does produce an income stream to political entrepreneurs which closely resembles the profit of market entrepreneurs.